The parakeet (psitacus Caroliniensis) never reach so far North as Pennsylvania, which to me is unaccountable, considering they are a bird of such singular rapid flight, they could easily perform the journey in ten or twelve hours from North Carolina, where they are very numerous, and we abound with all the fruits which they delight in.
I was assured in Carolina, that these birds, for a month or two in the coldest winter weather, house themselves in hollow Cypress trees, clinging fast to each other like bees in a hive, where they continue in a torpid state until the warmth of the returning spring reanimates them, when they issue forth from their late dark, cold winter cloisters. But I lived several years in North Carolina, and never was witness to an instance of it; yet I do not at all doubt but there have been instances of belated flocks thus surprised by sudden severe cold, and forced into such shelter, and the extraordinary severity and perseverance of the season might have benumbed them into a torpid sleepy state; but that they all willingly should yield to so disagreeable and hazardous a situation does not seem reasonable or natural, when we consider that they are a bird of the swiftest flight and impatient of severe cold. They are easily tamed, when they become docile and familiar, but never learn to imitate the human language.
Both species of the Baltimore bird (oriolus, Linn. icterus, Cat.) are spring birds of passage and breed in Pennsylvania; they have loud and musical notes.
The yellow breasted chat (oenanthe, Cat. motacilla trochilus, Linn.) is in many instances a very singular bird; the variableness and mimickry of his notes or speech, imitating various creatures; and a surprising faculty of uttering a coarse, hollow sounding noise in their throats or crops, which at times seems to be at a great distance, though uttered by a bird very near, and vice versa. They arrive in Pennsylvania from the South, late in the month of May, breed and return again early in autumn.
It is a matter of enquiry, what should have induced the zoologists to class this bird with the motacillæ, when they discover no one characteristic to induce such an alliance; this bird having a remarkable thick, strong bill, more like the frugivorous tribes: and in my opinion they are guilty of the like oversight in classing the summer red-bird with the muscicapa, this bird having a thick, strong bill, approaching nearer the starling (sturnus.)
These historical observations being noted, we will will again resume the subject of our journey.
[42] Magnolia grandiflora, called by the inhabitants the Laurel.
[43] Kite hawks These are characterised by having long sharp pointed wings, being of swift flight, sailing without flapping their wings, lean light bodies, and feeding out of their claws on the wing, as they gently sail round and round.
[44] Pica glandaria cerulea non cristata, the little jay of East Florida.
[45] (1, 2) Are generally supposed to be male and female of the same species (2) or the pied rice bird, the male, and (1) or the yellow, the female.